Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: old house

HAPPY HALLOWEEN to everyone who celebrates! Here, we have a dreary morning with light rain and a temperature of 3C. Hopefully, it will clear up in time for all the little trick-or-treaters this evening. This old house always used to take me by surprise, because I could never remember exactly where this location was, and it was a case of suddenly coming across it. I added a slight filter touch in post-processing, to give a bit sharper detail. This photo was taken on a day of adventure for me. I drove further than I had ever driven before (way, way SE of the city) - must have been somewhere between 400 and 500 km total. No big deal for many of you, but for me (and as someone with a driving phobia), it WAS a big deal : ) Also, I did a day of driving just two days earlier when my daughter and I went NE of the city as far as Drumheller. After two long drives, my poor shoulder rotator cuffs complained like crazy, BUT, I had a great time - just a couple of moments of 'panic', when I thought I was lost, and when I noticed that I was seeing different wildflower species and definitely a different kind of landscape. I eventually left home at 11:00 am, a good couple of hours later than I had intended. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to get to where I wanted to get, so had wanted to allow plenty of hours for this journey. I had been on the road for about three hours by the time I got there, but did stop at various places en route. The first part of my drive was along familiar roads - called in at Frank Lake just to check the gravel road leading to the gate. An Eastern Kingbird was the only species I saw. From there, I kept driving east, stopping briefly to photograph one of my favourite old houses, seen in this photo. This highway eventually bends southwards and leads to Vulcan. I had only ever once driven as far as Vulcan, and that was on 30 March 2015. I had to stop again, like last year, and take a few photos of the cluster of old sheds, barn and house on the edge of Vulcan, before continuing on my way. From here, until I reached my destination, was all new to me. Exciting and anxiety-causing, all at the same time. I drove further east and then turned south and found myself in a different kind of landscape, with a few interesting birds and plants to see and photograph, including a Ferruginous Hawk (three, actually) and wild sunflowers. I was in tall wind turbine country - which told me how far south I had come. Along one road, I had a Swainson's Hawk who perched nicely on a fence post at first and then circled overhead and followed my vehicle further down the road. Think it may have been a juvenile, screeching for its parents to come and feed it. Also saw a Mourning Dove on a fence post and a juvenile Horned Lark. Actually, there were a lot of Horned Larks. I tend to forget that we can see them in summer time. After travelling westwards and then north and west again, I called in briefly to take a few photos of the old grain elevator at Herronton and then found myself back at Frank Lake. It was still daylight, so I decided to try one more time along the gravel road leading to the gate. Here, I had another nice sighting - friend, Debbie : ) Good to see you and have a nice, long chat. A great day with an enjoyable ending.

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 5 July 2016, when I finally drove down SE of the city to the Frank Lake area. I have missed almost all the shore birds this year and knew that if I didn't go very soon, they would all have left. As it was, I saw very few birds of any kind yesterday. I drove straight to the blind/hide, where everything was quiet, other than a few Coots with their teenage kids, several Ruddy Ducks, a Marsh Wren that I could hear but not see, a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds, maybe three White-faced Ibis flying by, and a few Tree Swallows. As soon as I had left the blind and taken a few steps down the boardwalk, I was totally taken by surprise by a Black-crowned Night Heron that flew overhead, being chased by a small shorebird. The Heron was letting out a very loud 'hoarse scream' that sounded almost human-like. Just managed to get a rapid shot of the Heron, posted just for my own record. I so rarely see a Night Heron, though I did see and photograph a beautiful juvenile that was hanging out at Lafarge Meadows in Fish Creek Park last year (2015). From the blind area at Frank Lake, I drove eastwards and eventually came to Mossleigh, where I stopped at the three Grain Elevators to take photos. On the way, I stopped to photograph this old homestead - I have usually seen and photographed it in winter. The chimney that was on the right hand side of the roof had crumbled and fallen since I last saw this house. The light was really bad, with massive storm clouds overhead. The weather forecast was for a risk of thunderstorms, though fortunately there was just a tiny bit of short-lived rain. The past week, there have been tornadoes north and south of us, but there was no Tornado Warning in effect yesterday. A great kind of sky when a few of the fields were turning bright yellow from the Canola crops. However, a real challenge for my camera, which recently developed a problem - when I am trying to focus on something, it goes in and out of focus rapidly and 'shudders', making it most unpleasant to view as well as making it very difficult to see what I'm taking. This is not the usual difficulty of getting the camera to focus. Then, yesterday, when I very slightly tipped the camera upwards, once I had focused on say a field of Canola, the lower half of he viewfinder went so dark I couldn't really see anything. Such a pain, especially as I absolutely have to have a working camera for the whole of this weekend! As it is, I always take almost all my photos on the sunset setting, because the regular settings give me totally washed out images that have little detail - just not usable. Amazes me that any of my photos turn out, ha. A few hours later, it was time to return home after a few very enjoyable hours out. More of a cloud, scenery and old barn trip than a birding trip, but those of you who know me, know I love photographing all of the above.